


After the End of the Line

by LJSnow



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Stucky - Freeform, alternative ending, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 22:13:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18669391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJSnow/pseuds/LJSnow
Summary: An alternative ending to Avengers Endgame. CONTAINS MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS.





	After the End of the Line

**Dust**

 

I'm shooting at alien soldiers, fighting my way through to him, until finally the path is clear, but then it happens.

 

“Steve-?” I call for help so weakly, so distantly, as I become dust in the wind. I cease to be. To exist. The last thing I see is his features scrunching up, his eyes disbelieving as I fade away. 

 

**The Final Battle**

 

I exist again. One moment I was gone entirely, the next I was whole again. Others around me were just as confused. For a moment I assume that no time has passed at all, but Steve is gone.

 

Dr Steven Strange appears, explains the situation to those of us left on the battlefield. We had been snapped out of existence, and now we're back. Five years had passed. Disorientated, I ready myself to rejoin the fight. 

 

I emerge through a portal, distantly recalling how Steve had looked at me. Before me is a battlefield much like the one I had just left, and though the fight is new, the enemy is the same. I scan the view before me, and I see him standing alone on a hill. He is injured, his shield battered and broken, and I feel the anger wash through me, flooding my veins. I let myself become a living weapon. Reunions can come later. I am an avenger.

  
  


**Returning The Stones**

 

The war is over, and someone has to take the Infinity Stones back to their original places in time. Of course Steve volunteers. 

 

I hug him in the most distant way I can manage, over the shoulder, minimal comfort. I feel my chest clenching and twisting, knotting itself, in a way that might never come undone.

 

I watch as Steve steps onto the device that would send him back in time, my eyes glazing over. I know what will happen. I know him better than anyone. He'd asked to do this for a reason. He wanted to be with her. He owed Peggy a dance, and he was going to make good on his promise. I feel my body growing cold, my feet glued to the ground.

 

He says something as he disappears, and I decide to forget what he says. He won’t be back anyway. He’ll stay there with her. It will probably be for the best if I never see him again. I want him to be happy. The last thing he needs is for me to be in the way. My body, my heart lurches as he goes. I want more than anything to be going with him, to be by his side, but I know that it would kill me. I can’t watch him be with her. I need to move on, like he never could. I let myself slowly freeze over, my mind retreating to some distant place, where I can drift away. Why bring me back at all?

 

I start to turn away to look at the lake, the trees, a thing other than the time machine. Perhaps he’ll come walking toward us, moments from now, an old man in his nineties. We won’t speak, but I’ll have confirmation that he led a good life. It’s the best I can hope for. Sam is hitting the button to bring Steve back, and when he doesn’t appear immediately, I sigh, the last of me escaping in one breath.

 

But then he’s there. Steve is back, and I can’t process what I’m seeing. He can’t be back. Why would he come back? I focus on his features, searching for answers, and I see the tears in his eyes. What went wrong?

 

“Steve?” I turn fully to face him, barely able to form words. He looks as if he is about to cry, a sight I have never seen before, but then he breaks into a run. He’s here. He’s wrapping his arms around me, his fingers pressing into my back, my skull.

 

I begin to choke up before I even understand what this means, water burning my eyes,

 

“I couldn’t do it.” He says. “I wasn’t strong enough.” 

 

“What?” I ask, needing to know. I don’t know whether to flee or return his embrace.

 

“I thought about it, at least I tried to. But there’s no comparison.” He says, and I see Sam backing away, before heading back inside. Steve pulls back a little to look at me, his blue eyes filled with sadness. I want to kill whoever made him feel like that. He rarely shows his emotions these days, and I’ve not seen him look at me like that since we were teenagers, “Remember all the time we spent together? How I never wanted to dance with anyone else?” He places his hand on my cheek, his thumb brushing away an escaped tear, and the gesture makes me tremble, but I fight to keep still, “Bucky, it’s you. It’s always been you.” 

 

The words take a moment to settle between us. Without realising I had broken, I suddenly feel everything fitting back into place. Some things that never fit before, now locking in, remaking me in a way that feels right. A moment later my arms are moving of their own accord, my hands reaching around Steve and pulling him closer,

 

“I said I’d be with you,” He’s saying, “I meant that promise.” And I realise that he’d always meant it, “I said I was waiting for the right partner, but I guess I was being too subtle.” He chuckles as fresh tears well up in my eyes. I can’t hold back any longer. I’ve waited a lifetime, and he’s looking at me like he needs me. Like he’s struggling to breathe.

 

I lean closer, my heart racing, and keep searching his eyes. A million thoughts rush through my head. This would change everything. This is it. This is us. It’s harder to resist with every passing moment, but he’s smiling, his eyes pressing shut, so I close the distance between us.

 

Steve moans, and to my shock, immediately kisses me back, his hands pressing into me, his lips brushing over mine, and I feel his warm breath mingle with my own. Everything else fades out, the chirping birds and the rustling trees. It’s only Steve. It’s always been Steve. He kisses me with a hunger that I never knew existed within him. It takes over him, and I finally feel my body thaw, my heart bursting free. He loves me.

 

“Stay.” I dare to ask him between one breathless kiss and the next,

 

“I’m with you.” He says, and brushes away tears of his own.

 

This time I believe him.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the ending I hoped for.


End file.
